Last week’s fierce clashes between the Lebanese Army and Syria-based jihadis near Lebanon’s eastern frontier with Syria were part of the militants’ major battle against the military, a senior ministerial source said.
Eight soldiers, including an officer, were killed and at least 22 others were wounded in the clashes that erupted last Friday after the militants briefly overran an Army post in Tallet al-Hamra on the outskirts of the village of Ras Baalbek near the eastern border with Syria. More than 40 militants were discovered on the outskirts of Ras Baalbek, most of whom were killed in Army airstrikes on their vehicle convoy.
Referring to the Army’s war against terrorism, the source said: “The battles being fought by the military establishment [against terrorism] have produced three results. First, the need to bolster the Army with modern arms and necessary equipment to enable it to continue the battle against terrorism. This was manifested with the arrival of a quick shipment of sophisticated arms [to the Army] in the wake of the Ras Baalbek battle.”
“Second, the Ras Baalbek battle is part of the major battle for which the gunmen have been preparing. Security agencies have information that those [militants] have brought reinforcements into the outskirts of the eastern mountain range [near the border with Syria] after bringing in more gunmen from Syria’s Qalamoun region,” the source told The Daily Star.
“Third, creating a collective political environment for the Army’s action, which can be secured with the launch of dialogue among the Lebanese parties, be it through the intra-Christian dialogue or the intra-Muslim dialogue,” he added.
However, parliamentary sources in the March 14 coalition have a different assessment. According to these sources, boosting the country’s immunity against the threat of terrorism begins with removing pretexts used by terrorist organizations to attack military posts and residential areas.
“On top of these pretexts is Hezbollah’s fighting in Syria, holding the presidential election in order for the state to restore its head, and the expansion of the mandate of [U.N. Security Council] Resolution 1701 [in south Lebanon] to cover the eastern border [with Syria],” a parliamentary source said.
“This can ensure a protective shield in the face of the terrorists’ schemes aimed, among many other goals, at securing a safe haven inside the Lebanese arena,” the source added.
The ministerial source ruled out the election of a new president before March, three months before the June deadline for Iran and Western powers to reach a comprehensive agreement over Tehran’s nuclear program.
The White House’s announcement that there is a 50 percent chance of reaching an accord with Iran over its nuclear program, and the meeting between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Davos, Switzerland, two days ago, signaled a sort of flexibility in the relations between the two countries that might reflect positively on the conflicts in the region.
Contrary to the negative attitudes declared by the American and Iranian sides indicating that differences still hinder a nuclear deal, an agreement between the two sides has to some extent been reached, but promoting it is encountering French, Saudi and Israeli objections, in addition to objections by the Republican Party, which won the midterm elections in the U.S. Congress, the source said.
He added that the meetings held in Paris with the participation of Kerry and Zarif, which came a day after their talks in Geneva, focused on overcoming the French objections over the Iranian nuclear issue, which are less complicated than the Israeli, Saudi and Republican objections.
According to information available to the ministerial source, the ongoing U.S.-Iranian dialogue goes beyond the nuclear issue to discussing a package of solutions to regional conflicts, in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Lebanon and Bahrain.
This dialogue is focused on the limits of Iran’s role in the region and the roles of other countries, especially since Washington had promised its Arab and regional allies that any agreement to be reached with Tehran would take into account their vital interests in the first place, the source said.
He added that Washington would sooner or later be able to convince its allies who oppose an agreement with Iran to accept this agreement as long as they cannot afford to disobey it for long.
“Therefore, the dialogue between the Future Movement and Hezbollah, which is emanating from these regional and international developments, is intended to create a fertile ground to benefit from any regional agreement and invest it in internal efforts aimed at setting the Lebanese house in order, starting with the election of a new president,” the source said.
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